Binding windows form controls to an object's properties

Question

Is it possible to use object binding to bind a windows form control to an object so that whenever the object changes the form control reflects that change.

Here's what I've done so far:

1. Added a data grid to the form.

2. Added a binding reference to the class. This added the properties of the class as columns to the datagrid.

3. set the data grid's data source to the object.

The class is updated by an external event source. The update is working fine but nothing appears in the data grid.

I am wondering if I missing a step or what I'm trying to do is not possible automatically meaning I have to add some code to update the grid each time the object gets updated. If so, what's the point of binding in the first place.

Answer 1

I think the following MSDN web site should be quite helpful for you:

• Change Notification in Windows Forms Data Binding

A brief summary is that your object that keeps the data (and can be changed) should implement the INotifyPropertyChanged interface. The interface contains a single event that you should trigger whenever your data is changed (by the external update). If you also want to support addition and removal of items, then you'll need to take a look at IBindingList.